I used to read McLuhan, Chomsky, Mander, et al. and yah, I'd say it's a stretch.
But the one thing that makes this compelling is as app said in her blog, (paraphrasing...) It's the people on the other end of the cat-5 that make it important.
The medium is simply the facilitator for the connections made.
The ham radio folks have gotten a taste of this kind of thing for years, and now it's available in full to everyone with a computer (thank you Intel and Microsoft) and a wire to get past your own four walls (thank you Edison Bell) and that is what is so amazing.
Not the fancy graphics, not the catchy buzzwords, but the connections possible between so many cultures and peoples and the information to feed their interactions is what is boggling.